[Sermon Archive] - [Weekly Devotional Guide]

This Week's Sermon THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 28 June 2009 "His Mercies Never Come to an End! Mark 5:21-43 LSB Series B Vicar Gerald D. Heinecke Soli Deo Gloria!

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness...The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him...Though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men. Thus says the author of Lamentations. What bold, confident words he gives us and how appropriate they are for today's gospel reading. We have two stories of compassion: one of a woman who has been plagued by a horrible disease for many years and another of a child struck down and killed by an illness.

What tragedy! And the world today is still not immune to such tragedy. Death and sickness surround us. Yet with all these sad moments, ingrained into us is the knowledge that God is faithful. Despite the fact that we live in a world that is becoming ever more hostile towards our Lord and Savior, He continually does take care of us as the gospel text clearly shows.

So much is occurring in this reading that it is difficult to focus on one thing. Social standards are being broken all over. There are great cases of faith as well as unbelief. The omnipotence and omniscience of Jesus is shown. There are cultural displays of grief. Israelite cleansing laws are broken. Great miracles are performed. Yet, there is one focus that remains true for the Gospel reading which is hammered home by listening to Lamentations 3:22-23 again, The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

The world today continually tries to explain away the goodness of God. They have tried to explain every miracle and mystery. From the creation to the 10 plagues, to the miracles of Christ and even the Lord's Supper and Baptism, nothing has been left standing by those who seek to discredit God's gifts of grace.

Evolution now holds the stage with many people. Even those who will agree to a six day creation may still say that God didn't create the universe over six, twenty-four hour periods. Instead they will claim that each day was like 10,000 years or more by misinterpreting other portions of the bible! There was even an occurrence where at a Synodical convention an overture on the LCMS position of a six day creation was not passed unanimously. Genesis clearly shows us though that it was truly a 24 hour period time by it's use of the word day. This is but one act of God that is questioned.

Think also about the Lord's Supper. A significant number of Christians do not believe that Jesus' body and blood is truly present in, with, and, under the bread and the wine. It is dismissed as impossible. Yet, the reality and truth of this miracle is important to us as Pastor proclaimed on Trinity Sunday at the beginning of the month.

This brings us to the gospel reading. While reading about these great miracles we see many also doubt the power of Christ. First of all this poor woman has been afflicted with a blood disease for twelve long years. Having exhausted all her resources she finds she truly cannot hope in anything else. Her only hope is now found in Christ. It is to have faith in his almighty power that he alone can heal her of this disease.

Yet what is this woman doing amongst other people? She is making all these people unclean. Leviticus 15 reminds us that anyone with a bloody discharge should be considered an outcast. For that person is unclean and anyone with whom she has contact also becomes unclean for the rest of the day. Despite this she knows that only in Christ will she be made clean. She risks going into the crowd, making much of the crowd unclean, in order to be made well.

The woman in her faith touches Jesus and is healed! Jesus didn't even say anything! It was the means of his body that gave her life. For here he takes her uncleanness unto himself and will carry it with the rest of the worlds sins to the cross.

Interestingly, Mark tells us, Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, 'Who touched my garments?'" What great power he has to realize that he has healed someone! A crowd of malady surrounds him, encroaching upon him at all times but our story does not mention that any of them are healed or forgiven. How could Jesus have known! He is omniscient and omnipotent! Then the disciples say, "You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, 'Who touched me?'" The disciples continue to show their lack of faith by not believing in his almighty power.

As Jesus looks for the one who touched him, she comes forth confessing what she had done. For her, having touched someone would have been to break God's Law, but the woman does not receive chastisement from Jesus. Instead, he says, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease." Go in peace? Go in peace is an absolution! In her confession of doing wrong, of making others unclean, she is forgiven. It is her faith in the word that she has heard spoken to her, that Jesus healed her of the dreaded disease of sin. So now, not only has she been cleansed of her physical ailment, but she has been cleansed inwardly, spiritually as well!

Jesus' work is still not done though! Another great miracle is about to happen. The child that Jesus is going to see has died. The synagogue ruler is in a great worry and a pang of fear has now struck his heart. Yet what does Jesus tell him? "Do not fear, only believe." Only believe? Believe what? His daughter is dead! This is precisely why he should believe because Jesus is going to do for the child as was asked of him in the beginning, "Come lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live." Jesus directs him to have faith in his initial request!

"The child is not dead but sleeping," Jesus says. Once again Jesus encounters unbelief. This time he doesn't even bother with these people, he just sends them away. There is no use explaining Jesus' great power and work to these mockers. They will only become more belligerent to the Messiah.

You though have heard this idea of sleeping before. Paul likes to incorporate this phrase in his epistles. Recall the great resurrection chapter from 1 Corinthians 15. "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins...But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. It is in this future hope that Jesus directs the child's parents. It is how we too rest secure. We know that through the all- encompassing grace of Jesus all believers will be raised from the dead to eternal life. Just as we have foreshadowed for us in this girl who is given temporal life again.

With the simple words of Christ, "Little girl, I say to you, arise." she gets up and begins walking. What an amazing feat of our Savior. Once again, faith is what makes this miracle possible. Death has been defeated, life has been restored!

Yet maybe the question remains, why don't we see anyone being raised from the dead today? Why don't we see any miraculous signs today? Maybe you're looking too hard. Open your bulletin and look at the collect of the day. We prayed, "By the healing medicine of the Word and Sacraments pour into our hearts such love toward you that we may live eternally." You, who were once spiritually dead, have now been raised from that death and placed in the book of life! If rescuing me from sin, death, and the power of the devil is not a miracle I don't know what is!

Through the simple means of water and the Word a precious miracle is brought about, faith. All people, whether they are 1 day or 100 years old receives the gracious gift of life everlasting through baptism, thus becoming a child of God, which this faith firmly grasps. It is this faith that brought about the woman being healed as well as the child being raised from the dead.

Another great miracle occurs daily although we often don't recognize it as such. You are provided with your daily needs and many of your wants as well. This is what Jesus gave to the people daily, their daily bread. He fed the people, as we see in such miracles as the feeding of the 5000. He gave good weather as he did when he calmed the storm on the sea. He gave them health, just as he did for the woman in our lesson. He gave devout children when he raised the girl from the dead. Our Lord continues to supply all these and much more throughout our life even though it appears much less miraculous.

There is one more great miracle that we have the opportunity to receive at least weekly. Just as the woman by faith came to Jesus Christ in her unclean state seeking to be made clean, so also in our unclean state, you and I come to the Divine Service to seek a most awesome work of God. You and I come to the Lord Supper, to this very altar rail, so that as one body we may receive the gift that makes us clean. That gives us the peace that only Jesus can give. Even when I am sore oppressed by the greed of my sin, I can come, eat, and drink of the Lord's body and blood and leave with a joyful heart knowing that in him I have been made whole.

It is only through Christ that we are made whole. This is why we constantly write and preach that in the divine service we find the peace which only God gives. It is why we encourage parents to lead their children in a godly manner, teaching them everything that God has commanded because in this alone will your children realize that salvation is not something we do, but rather something that is handed to us. That is given to us freely.

As Lamentations reminds us, God's mercies never come to an end. His love is steadfast and in our last hours we will see his love come to a culmination. It will manifest itself in our resurrection from the dead. That is the greatest miracle, his greatest mercy, his greatest love. It is prefigured for us in Jesus ability to raise this girl from the dead. With the utmost joy, we can rest from our labors and sleep peacefully in our death because we know that our death is but temporary. O death, where is your victory? O death where is your sting? There is none! His mercies never come to an end. In the end, Death is swallowed up in victory; it will have no case against us. In conclusion, our hymn of the day says it so well. In stanza three we sing, "Lord, preserve and keep us in the peace that faith can give."